Massive manhunt in Idaho; boy ID'd

Sara Britt, grandmother of Hannah Anderson, 16, and Ethan Anderson, 8, hugs the boy's best friend, Christian "Boogie" Ingram, 11, during a candlelight vigil Friday for the children and their mother Christina Anderson.
Hayne Palmour IV

Sara Britt, grandmother of Hannah Anderson, 16, and Ethan Anderson, 8, hugs the boy's best friend, Christian "Boogie" Ingram, 11, during a candlelight vigil Friday for the children and their mother Christina Anderson.

Authorities swarmed a remote wilderness area in central Idaho Friday after a murder suspect’s car was found abandoned off a forest road, two days after horseback riders encountered two campers believed to be fugitive James DiMaggio and missing Lakeside teenager Hannah Anderson.

San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said that four riders saw a man and a woman believed to be DiMaggio, 40, of Boulevard, and Anderson, 16, on Wednesday, first in the early morning and then again around noon.

The riders, who talked to the pair, said the two had light camping gear, backpacks and a tent, and appeared to be out of place.

After returning from their ride at sunset Wednesday, they heard about an Amber Alert for Hannah and DiMaggio and “put two and two together,” Gore said.

They notified Idaho authorities, who contacted San Diego County sheriff’s officials.

Idaho State Police searched all day Thursday. About 8 a.m. Friday, they found DiMaggio’s blue 2013 Nissan Versa. It was just off a road and had been covered in brush with its license plates removed, Gore said. No explosives were found in the car.

The sighting was in a rough mountainous region called Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, east of the city of Cascade, which has a population of 940. The two were camping about five to six miles from where the car was found. The riders said both appeared to be in good health, and Gore said it did not appear to the riders that the girl was being held against her will.

The search was to continue through the night and resume Saturday.

The sighting was welcome news to Hannah’s father, Brett Anderson, who said Friday night that he was cautiously optimistic that his daughter, who celebrated her 16th birthday on July 22, would come home safe.

Idaho authorities said local, state and federal officers were searching in a 300-square-mile area. The wilderness area, the second largest in the contiguous United States, encompasses almost 2.4 million acres. Idaho authorities said searchers were on foot and horseback, and in all-terrain vehicles and helicopters.

Gore said he has high hopes that DiMaggio will be apprehended and that the girl will be recovered and returned to her family. Hannah’s friends have said that DiMaggio was infatuated with the El Capitan High School junior.

DiMaggio is accused of killing Hannah’s mother, Christine "Tina" Anderson, 44, and son, Ethan, 8, then setting fire Sunday night to his log cabin house and detached garage in Boulevard. The remains of a young child found in one of the buildings were identified late Friday as Ethan’s. DNA tests confirmed what family had suspected and authorities had feared.

Brett Anderson and other relatives and friends gathered Friday night at Lindo Lake Park in Lakeside in a vigil for his family.

He recently separated from his wife and moved to Tennesee for a job. DiMaggio had said he would watch over the family.

Anderson said the lake was one of Ethan’s favorite spots and where he came frequently to fish with his friends.

“This was Ethan’s playpen,” the father said. “This was his fishing hole. He probably came here five times a week.”

Erik Campbell of Poway, Ethan’s godfather, said it has been a “surreal” week for the family as they coped with the news of Christina’s death and waited for news about Ethan and Hannah in a case that has drawn nationwide media attention.

“You don’t expect to turn on the television and see your family on CNN and ‘Nancy Grace,’ ’’ Campbell said. “Unfortunately,” he said, “our family befriended a maniac.”

Campbell brought his 3-month-old son, Jordan, to the vigil, and the baby wore a onesie that said “Pray for Hannah” on it.

Like other family members, Campbell said they never would have expected that DiMaggio, a Scripps Research Institute telecommunications technician described as mild-mannered and unassuming, would have done something so heinous as what he is accused of.

Ralph Britt, the stepfather of Christina Anderson, said DiMaggio and Brett Anderson met about 20 years ago when they worked together in the telecommunications field. He said Hannah and Ethan referred to DiMaggio as “Uncle Jim.”

Sara Britt, Christina's mother, spoke to the vigil crowd and told the many young people there not to be afraid to say something if they hear something confidential and feel uneasy about it, an apparent reference to friends’ remarks this week that Hannah had recently become uncomfortable around DiMaggio, and that at times he “creeped her out.”

“You have to tell someone that can help you,” she said.

Christopher Saincome, Hannah’s maternal grandfather in Camarillo, said he was relieved to hear the news from Idaho.

“I’m so glad. That’s great. I’m happy they found her alive,” Saincome said.

Saincome said he believes Hannah would have never consented to go along with DiMaggio, who is single, and that “she has nothing to do with this” trip to Idaho.

He told U-T San Diego on Thursday that his daughter, Christina, told him last week that DiMaggio wanted her to bring her children to his home to say goodbye because he was losing his house to a foreclosure and moving to Texas.

Investigators also believe that DiMaggio, who they described as an avid outdoorsman, had been thinking about the crimes for some time.

Fraser described the case as one of the “worst ones I’ve seen” in 32 years in law enforcement.

The remains of the Anderson family dog, Cali, also were found in the charred rubble. Ralph Britt said Hannah and Ethan had gotten Cali as a puppy two Easters ago and frequently took the dog to DiMaggio's house.

The case has baffled family and friends of DiMaggio, who was described by his sister Lora Robinson as a “straight-up guy” who is smart, kind and who cared for Ethan and Hannah as if they were his own.

DiMaggio’s last post on his Facebook page was July 10. He quoted American writer and politician William Mather Lewis. It reads, “The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.”

Brett Anderson said he was touched by all the prayers that had been sent from around the world, some as far as Austria and Australia, on Facebook pages for Hannah and Ethan.

“I think that will bring a lot of peace to her when she gets home,” he said.